How Long Does it Take to Develop an Educational App?

Benjamin Franklin said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best return”. And for companies specializing in Elearning Software Development, this saying has more meanings than one. Educational apps are already saturating the market and are one of the top three App Store categories and 2nd in Google Play. With an original idea and flawless execution, investment in knowledge will pay a lot. But when? Let’s analyze basic features for online education and the development time you’ll roughly need for them.

Common Application Features in Ed Apps

The specific time estimate for education apps is impossible. Asking “how long does it take to create an online course or web app?” is like asking “how long does it take to write a book?”. What genre? What topic it covers: specific or broad? How many plot twists are there?

It’s the same with software development time estimation. Some apps take weeks to develop and more sophisticated ones are going to take years. The approach we take here is to count how many developer hours it takes to create common application features for online education. Summing them and adding extra time for risk management will give us a clearer picture.

Of course, eLearning production time calculators are out there to help estimate development time. However, these time estimates are rough and should be thought of like “it’s just a draft for the future”.

Also, eLearning development calculators are often just a set of questions to help you count basic features for online education mobile apps. Also, there are breakdowns of tasks and the percentage of development time for each team. To answer the question "How long does it take to create an online course?" it’s better to choose application features for the specific case.

Let’s start with the basic features for online education and add up development time. Key features for creating education apps:

→ Registration/ Log-in (min 30 hours)

→ Verification (min 90 hours)

→ User Profile/Dashboard (min 20 hours)

→ Navigation/ Search Filters (80 hours total)

→ App purchases and other payments (min 197 hours)

→ Push Notifications (265 hours)

→ Communication and Interaction Module (forums (160 h), chat messaging (200 h), comments (60 h), and private emails (40 hours).

→ Audio/Video Streaming (at least 720 hours)

As you can see, the time required for developing E-learning apps is quite sufficient. The entire process is 1142 hours for usual application features for online education. Of course, the hourly rates of developers are different in many countries but if we count 50 $ per hour (Ukrainian rates), it’ll cost 57,100$. That’s why software development time estimation is important: if you know the features you need, you’ll choose the right development team and make a profit sooner. (Preferably with average development costs).

Additional application features for online education will add to the development process and make the learning process better. App users, especially ones that prefer online education are quite picky, so you'll need to break a sweat and dive into interactive learning, gamification, social media integrations, etc.

How Long Does it Take to Create an Online Course?

Let’s say we want to create an online course and want a place to start. There are three essential pillars: content in the course, communication in the app, and grading. Also, keep in mind that the type of app, the quality of content, and your availability are crucial for a time estimate.

Content Creation and Representation

The potential to make and deliver content is perhaps the most important aspect. There are several ways to integrate content into the course. For example, the language learning app may only have textual information, but that’s not enough for learning process or deep understanding of the subject. In courses that are produced nowadays, we see video content, infographics, graphs, and other pictures. I’m not even starting on Future e-learning trends like AI, Virtual Reality, social learning, microlearning and mobile learning, etc.

The development time of textual content production according to eLearning production time calculators is around 240 hours. If we integrate audio and video formats, the development time doubles, resulting in a 720-hour development time.

Communication

The must-have in any course is communication inside the course or a mobile application. On the Coursera platform that’s a discussion forum for every course, Stanford - a virtual assistant, and Udemy - chats. Every user you’ll have in E-learning apps or courses would ask questions about the material, so communication can’t be avoided.

The most common ways are forums, chats, comments, and private emails. The production time calculator estimates the development time of the application features is 160, 200, 60, and 40 hours accordingly.

Grades and feedback

Feedback and a grading system are vital for the learning process and rewards. That’s part of human nature to rely on opinions to understand their progress better. Educational applications usually also have the user’s personal profile to save the interactions and progress. The software development time estimation for this feature is 20 hours.

The eLearning development calculator claims that application features such as ratings and rewards will add 60 and 40 hours to development time. Of course, it’s only a rough estimate. The more intricate the app design you want or more functions there, the longer it’ll take and cost more.

Quick Afterword

So, eLearning software development of a standard online course with just a few needed functions will be around 1280 hours. A lot of different factors could influence the final time estimate. The experience of the development team, the platform for the course being published, fixing technical issues, and maintaining/editing the course is going to add to the software development time estimation. Mobile apps have to keep up with user experience and user engagement. Educational app developers have to be the creators themselves, aren't they?